Funtional characterization of putative late hypocotyl (LHY) gene in stevia rebaudiana MS007 in silico analysis

• Main Authors: Samsulrizal, Nurul Hidayah, Abdul Rahim, Zabirah, Mohamad Nazar, Siti Noor Eliana, Mustafa, Nur Farhana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering Journal 2023
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/110413/7/110413_Funtional%20characterization%20of%20putative%20late%20hypocotyl.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/110413/; https://journals.iium.edu.my/bnrej/index.php/bnrej/article/view/88/73
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Stevia rebaudiana is a medicinal herb that has been known as a low-calorie sweetener. It has been recognised as an artificial sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than sucrose. It is a commercially important sweetener that has been consumed as food and medicine, due to its ability to reduce blood sugar levels. Stevioside is one of the important compounds that give food a sweet taste. Previous studies showed that high amount of stevioside could be produced by delaying the flowering process of stevia. The aim of this study is to characterise the putative Late Elongated Hypocotyl (LHY) gene that is involved in the flowering process by using bioinformatics tools. Both analyses by using BLAST and domain search found that LHY gene is involved in the flowering process. These domains are SANT/Myb domain (IPR001005/SM000717), TEA domain (SM00426), Myb domain (IPR017930), and Myb domain plants (IPR006447). The phylogenetic tree was built using 20 out of 100 protein sequences from BLAST. The physico-chemical properties of putative LHY protein had been conducted through ProtParam and TMHMM, which showed that the protein is a globular protein. The phylogenetic tree construction indicated the common ancestor for the putative LHY protein, which is from the same family, i.e., Asteraceae. In summary, this study improves our knowledge of Stevia MS007 LHY gene by in-silico analysis. Therefore, future research should focus on determining the precise function of the protein in regulating the blooming stage of the stevia plant.